The photophysical behavior of three Soret-excited diamagnetic meso-substituted tetraphenylmetalloporphyrins, MgTPP, ZnTPP, and CdTPP, have been examined in a wide variety of solvents using both steady-state and femtosecond fluorescence upconversion methods. The S-2 population of MgTPP decays to S-1 on the time scale of a few picoseconds with unit S-2-S-1 internal conversion efficiency, and the decay rates conform to the weak coupling case of radiationless transition theory. The energy gap law parameters characterizing the coupling of the S-2 and S-1 states of MgTPP have been obtained. The most important accepting vibrational modes in the S-1 state are multiple in-plane C-C and C-N stretches in the 1200-1500 cm(-1) range. Net S-2-S-1 decay is the dominant decay path for ZnTPP and CdTPP as well, but the process occurs at rates that exceed (in the case of CdTPP, they vastly exceed) those predicted by weak interstate coupling. Alternate mechanisms for the radiationless decay of the S-2 states of ZnTPP and CdTPP have been explored. Large spin-orbit coupling constants and the presence of multiple, near-equiergic triplet states suggest that S-2-T-n intersystem crossing might occur at rates competitive with internal conversion. However, the measured efficiencies of S-2-S-1 internal conversion show that, at most, only a few percent of the S-2 population of ZnTPP and no more than about 30% of the S-2 population of CdTPP can decay by a "dark" path such as intersystem crossing.